Goal Setter: Justin Thomas Wins The FedEx Cup And The $10 Million

Before the 2016-2017 PGA Tour season began, Justin Thomas sat down and wrote out some goals to aim for this season.

At the forefront of that list was to win the Tour Championship, where he finished second on Sunday. Even with that second place finish, Thomas captured the FedEx Cup and a $10 million purse that goes along with it. So not a terrible consolation for coming in second on Sunday.

Thomas used a ‘Y’ to signify that a certain goal had been reached. The date stamped on Thomas’ notes says Feb. 27th. At that point, Thomas had won three times already and secured a spot to reach the Tour Championship, but he hasn’t checked off the other goals reached on the list so we’ll do it for him.

Be in the final two groups of a major on Sunday: He did that twice, the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship – – Y

Thomas only missed two goals on his list. One was ‘playing under par on par 3s, 4s, and 5s’. He was under on the last two but had a scoring average of 3.03 on par 3s. The second goal he missed was being in the top 30 of scrambling, which he ended up 56th. The Tour average was 57.90 percent, so Thomas was slightly above that with his 60.39 percent when scrambling.

Goal setting is something that many people are taught to do, but don’t actually capitalize on. For a young player to do this shows that he is both mature and that he is surrounded by the right group of people in his life.

Thomas forgot to add one goal to his list: PGA Tour Player of the Year. The award that he is a lock for at this point after winning the FedEx Cup, to go along with his five wins this season. The 24-year-old appeared to be a shoe-in after winning the PGA Championship in August but there were some talks that Jordan Spieth could overtake that race if he won both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup – both were very likely scenarios.

The 24-year-old’s break-out season adds a whole new dynamic to golf’s youth movement. The competition has only become more intense now that Thomas is in a field with Rory McIlroy, Spieth, and Dustin Johnson.

The next decade of major championship Sundays are about to be as exciting as they will ever be with the golf’s talent levels rising to an all-time high.